Principal, The Alignment Partnership and Adjunct Professor, Macquarie Graduate School of Management

10 Reasons Why Effective Meetings Are So Important

11/09/2014 08:41 pm ETUpdated
Dec 06, 2017

"Our leadership meetings are a good use of time."

For 15 years now, we have tested this idea with more than 5,000 leaders, from 150 different organizations, across four continents. On average, these organizations score no more than 5/10. In other words, the best we can say is that the most important meetings in our organizations, attended by our most senior people, are half as effective as they could or should be.

The costs of ineffective meetings are huge. We waste the most important assets we have as leaders; discretionary time, money and talent. At a time of intense global competition, where the quality and speed of decisions can mean the difference between success and failure, 5/10 is not sustainable.

There are at least 10 benefits to increasing the effectiveness of your meetings. You:

1. Increase discretionary time; what would you do next week if you suddenly and sustainably got back 20% of your diary?2. Reduce stress; you will get more done, in less time, with less effort.3. Accelerate innovation; you will increase the quality, volume and frequency of strategic insight.4. Increase speed to market; you will respond more quickly to customer needs and market opportunities.5. Decrease cost; you will likely reduce the number of meetings and, in doing so, will dramatically reduce direct and indirect costs.6. Increase engagement and teamwork; you will create meetings that people want to attend, and they will bring greater levels of passion and commitment every day.7. Reinforce your desired culture; meetings are carriers of organizational culture. When meetings become demonstrably more effective, they spread a virus of energy and optimism across multiple dimensions of your organization. 8. Increase accountability; you will create an environment where more people contribute to decisions more often, resulting in higher levels of personal ownership.9. Provide a sense of purpose, every day; vision, mission and values statements can sometimes be viewed cynically by staff members, but productive meetings bring your aspirations to life every day.10. Accelerate toward your aspirations; you will direct all available energy toward your goals.

Over the coming weeks I will discuss how to shift the effectiveness of your most important meetings.